Who is Afghanistan’s top leader?

Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, has the final say on all political, religious and military decisions. He has officially led the Islamist group since 2016 but has not been seen in public for years. The ultraconservative cleric, said to be in his 60s, rose to prominence as a religious leader and went on to become one of the Taliban’s top judges.

Who is Afghanistan’s acting prime minister?

Mohammad Hassan Akhund, a close aide to Omar, was appointed acting prime minister. He was foreign minister and then deputy prime minister during the Taliban’s last reign, from 1996 to 2001. He is the longtime head of the Taliban’s powerful leadership council.

Did Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group’s top political leader, get a post?

One of the Taliban’s founding members and a confidant of Omar, Baradar was named Akhund’s deputy. Soft-spoken and with a gray beard, Baradar helped lead negotiations with the United States during the Trump administration, culminating in the Doha agreement that formalized the U.S. military withdrawal. As arguably the Taliban’s most recognized figure globally, Baradar had been widely tipped for the premiership.

How is the Haqqani network involved in Afghanistan’s new government?

Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of a brutal Taliban offshoot known as the Haqqani network , is the new acting interior minister. The group has been behind some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan over the past two decades — including a truck bomb in Kabul in 2017 that killed more than 150 people. The Haqqani network has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and maintains close ties to al-Qaeda.

Are any of Afghanistan’s new leaders on sanctions lists or wanted by the FBI?

Akhund is one of several cabinet members on a United Nations sanctions list. The FBI is offering $10 million for information leading to the arrest of Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted for questioning in connection with a 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul that killed six people, including a U.S. citizen.

Are there any female leaders in Afghanistan’s new government?

The all-male cabinet lineup is unlikely to help address the unease that has been building across the country in recent days, with reports of gender segregation in universities and demonstrations across major cities calling for a more inclusive government. In a potentially telling sign, the feared Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which enforced the Taliban’s severe interpretation of Islam in the 1990s, is set to return. At least one senior Taliban official has claimed that women will not be allowed to play sports under the new regime. The deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, told Australia’s SBS News that sports are not seen as something important for women.

What does this new leadership mean for Afghanistan?

To get access to international aid and billions in central bank assets, the Taliban will have to convince the world that it has become more moderate than the previous iteration that banned girls from school and stoned women to death for supposed offenses such as adultery.

What’s the practical impact of Afghanistan’s leaders being on sanctions or wanted lists?

Legal experts say sanctions are one of the few viable points of leverage for the international community as the new government takes shape. (After the Taliban takeover, the Biden administration froze Afghanistan’s central bank reserves under an executive order approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.) It is not unheard of for senior government officials, like those running North Korea, to be subject to sanctions. “One can think of multiple murderous regimes or regimes where people have been up to no good,” said Donald Rothwell, an expert in international law at Australian National University. “That in itself is not a disqualifying bar to the recognition of a government, or really doing business with another government.”

Have countries recognized the new Taliban government?

Western leaders have signaled a willingness to establish some kind of working relationship with the Taliban, he said. But, at least for now, the United States and its allies could stop short of legal recognition, Rothwell said. Western governments have made it clear that any resumption of foreign aid is conditional on the Taliban upholding basic human rights and allowing vulnerable Afghans to leave the country. The Taliban says it wants good relations with all countries — with the reported exception of Israel — and has been meeting with representatives of foreign nations in September in Qatar, where the group keeps a political office, the Associated Press reported. China has openly expressed interest in engaging with Taliban militants and, along with Russia, has kept its embassy in Kabul open. Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

Asia

Who leads Afghanistan’s new government? Here’s what we know about the Taliban’s top officials.

By Rachel Pannett

September 8, 2021 at 5:54 a.m. EDT

Mohammad Hassan Akhund, right, in 1999. He has been named acting prime minister of the Taliban's new government. (Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghanistan’s new caretaker government, announced Tuesday, is made up entirely of hard-line Taliban members. Many of them are known for their closeness to the movement’s late founder — the one-eyed cleric Mohammad Omar — which could complicate efforts to restart the economy and restore relations with the international community.

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The acting cabinet — the Taliban said it would name permanent leadership soon — also includes members of the powerful Haqqani militant network, responsible for many deadly attacks and kidnappings over the past two decades. Several senior members of the new government had been detained at Guantánamo Bay and were released in a prisoner swap for Bowe Bergdahl in 2014.

But there is no space for officials who had played senior roles in Afghanistan’s Western-backed government, such as former president Hamid Karzai and former national reconciliation leader Abdullah Abdullah.

The United States, which controls billions of dollars of the country’s frozen reserves, had pushed for an inclusive administration consisting of officials who are not members of the Taliban. Here’s what to know about the new government.

Who leads Afghanistan’s new government? Here’s what we know about the Taliban’s top officials.

Taliban takeover of Afghanistan: What you need to know